Understanding Context

The ordering of these layers of context is important because each layer influences how communication is understood. The higher the level of context, the more impactful it is, so that the highest order of context influences how everything else is understood and acted on from that perspective because everything else takes place within it.

In taking a communication perspective, each speech act is understood based on the episodes within which they occur, and these episodes happen within different levels of context. In the case study, “Living Well,” we can identify several speech acts, episodes, and contexts. We look at the different con­textual mappings from the viewpoints of both the Field Offices’ and Headquarters’ perspectives.

The Field Offices view themselves as repre­sentatives of the organization in the countries within which they are located. They expect that when the organization conducts any business in that location, the Field Office will be directly involved in one way or another, from actively organizing and participating in the event to being notified as a courtesy that an event will be taking place without their participation. The Field Office places Self as the highest order of context, and it influences how they understand this dynamic. This is depicted in Table 30.1.

On the other hand, Headquarters sees this scenario differently because they have placed Episode as the highest order of context. For them, represented in this particular scenario by scientists from their R&D (Research and Development) department, the opportunity to participate in a meeting with peers to advance

Table 30.2 Contextual Mapping From Headquarters Perspective

Episode Being invited to attend a meeting with potential partnering laboratories to further

develop our R&D capacities

Relationship We connect directly with other accomplished scientists for R&D; this is not a Business Center location, so they do not offer the R&D support we need

Self We are accomplished scientists advancing the R&D capabilities of this organization

Speech act Attending a meeting with potential partnering laboratories in a location where there is a Field Office

NOTE: R&D = research and development.

their pharmaceutical capabilities is the high­est order of context on which every decision and action is based.

The scientists from the R&D department in the organization connect directly with their counterparts in the location they will be visiting. This level of relationship is more meaningful to them because of the differentia­tion they make in their minds about Business Centers and Field Offices. From their perspec­tive, they have no obligation to be involved with the Field Office because company regula­tions does not state that they should.